How to quickly check if a file (workbook) is open or closed in Excel?

Excel daily work, you open multiple workbooks at the same time for working, but sometimes, the hundreds of workbooks may mess your head to remember if a specific workbook is open or closed. Give up the traditional method on checking files one by one, here I introduce you the tricks to quickly find a workbook is open or closed.

Check if a workbook is open or closed with VBA

Check if a workbook is open or closed with Kutools for Excel good idea3

Check if a workbook is open or closed with VBA

Here is a VBA code you can run to check if a specific workbook is open or closed.

1. Press Alt + F11 keys to open Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. Click Insert > Module and then copy and paste the VBA to the new Module window.

VBA: Check if a workbook open or closed

Function IsWorkBookOpen(Name As String) As Boolean
    Dim xWb As Workbook
    On Error Resume Next
    Set xWb = Application.Workbooks.Item(Name)
    IsWorkBookOpen = (Not xWb Is Nothing)
End Function

Sub Sample()
    Dim xRet As Boolean
    xRet = IsWorkBookOpen("combine.xlsx")
    If xRet Then
        MsgBox "The file is open", vbInformation, "Kutools for Excel"
    Else
        MsgBox "The file is not open", vbInformation, "Kutools for Excel"
    End If
End Sub

3. And press F5 key to run this vba, and a dialog pops out to remind you the specific workbook is open or not.
doc check if a file open 1     doc check if a file open 2

Tip: In the above VBA, “combine” is the workbook name you want to check, you can it as you need.

Check if a workbook is open or closed with Kutools for Excel

If you are no familiar with VBA, you can check if a workbook is open by Kutools for Excel, with its’s Navigation pane, which will help you can clearly view all open workbooks in the workbook list of the pane.

Kutools for Excel, with more than 300 handy functions, makes your jobs more easier. 
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After free installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below:

1. Click Kutools > Navigation to enable the Navigation pane. See screenshot:
doc check if a file open 3

2. Then click Workbook & Sheet button to expand the pane to go to Workbook & Sheet section. And you can view all open workbooks in the upper list. See screenshot:
doc check if a file open 4

With Navigation pane, you also can quickly switch between the workbooks or sheets in the list.

Click here to know more about Navigation.

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  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    matheus · 1 years ago
    I add this to my code but im having some issues...

    I use ur function to check if a workbook with i take some information from is already open or not, if it is open, the macro msgbox the user, telling him to close the workbook and restart the macro, till here, everything ok, the problem is, after closing the workbook and restarting the macro, it keeps saying the workbook is open while its not, any tips?


    Code:


    Sub Check_BKG()

    Set wa = Nothing

    Confirmação = MsgBox("Deseja realizar a checagem de dados?", vbYesNo + vbExclamation, "Aviso Macro")
    If Confirmação = vbNo Then Exit Sub

    '--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'
    '////////////////////////////CHECANDO SE EXSH JÁ ESTA ABERTO\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'
    '--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'
    Dim xRet As Boolean
    xRet = IsWorkBookOpen("EXSH0101.xlsx")
    If xRet Then
    MsgBox "O arquivo EXSH0101 já está aberto, por favor, feche o arquivo antes de executar a macro novamente.", vbInformation, "ERRO EXSH0101"
    'MsgBox "The EXSH0101 file is already open, please close it before restart the macro.", vbInformation, "EXSH0101 ERROR"
    Exit Sub
    End If
    '--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'
    '////////////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'
    '--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'

    With Application
    .EnableEvents = False
    .ScreenUpdating = False
    End With

    Call Abrir_Arquivos

    Call Setando_EXSH

    Call Inserir_Formulas

    With Application
    .EnableEvents = True
    .ScreenUpdating = True
    End With

    wb.Sheets("Inserir").Activate

    End Sub
  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    Joe · 2 years ago
    Just want to make sure everyone is aware, the "IsWorkBookOpen" function will only be able to tell if a workbook is open in the current instance of Excel. If you have multiple instances open you would need to run it on each instance to be sure the workbook is (not) open, using this code alone.
    • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
      Sunny · 2 years ago
      Thanks for your reminder.
  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    Dawid · 2 years ago
    Wow, super VBA, simple and works. Thank you very much :)
  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    Eddie · 2 years ago
    Excellent VBA, works great. Thanks.